The historical geography of the Otago Peninsula

Abstract

Carl Sauer has written that "The cultural landscape is fashioned out of the natural landscape by a cultural group." Sauer (1935) : 44. The "agent" in this moulding process is man, the "medium" is his culture, and the result of this interaction is the so-called "cultural landscape". In this thesis the "natural landscape" is the Otago Peninsula, a small area of land of limited economic resources and varied physical features. Two "cultural groups" are involved in its moulding into a "cultural landscape", the Maoris and the Europeans, the former being active in one small part of the area, whereas the European's influence has been much more widespread and complete. The overall effect of this refashioning has been to convert the forested natural landscape into a network of farms, roads and dwellings.